§ Mr. Higginsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases in the last five years a parent convicted of an offence involving the death of one child has subsequently been convicted of a further offence involving the death of another child.
§ Mr. MayhewThe information available to me on offences of homicide of children aged under 16 recorded in the period 1975–79 show no cases of conviction of parents who had previously been convicted of a similar offence.
§ Mr. Higginsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases in the last five years a parent was convicted for offences involving the death of one or more children of that family; and what was the number of these cases in which prison sentences of (a) less than one year, (b) one to five years, (c) five to 10 years and (d) over 10 years were imposed.
§ Mr. MayhewThe available information is given in the following table; information is not available separately about parents convicted of offences other than homicide involving the death of their children—for example, cruelty to a child.
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Parents* convicted of offences of homicide of their children aged under 16 and sentenced to imprisonment by sentence length England and Wales Year† Total number of parents* convicted Sentenced to imprisonment Total Up to 1 year Over 1 year up to 5 years Over 5 years up to 10 years Over 10 years (excluding life) Life Suspended sentence‡ 1975 38 24 — 15 3 — 2 4 1976 46 27 — 14 3 — 4 6 1977 44 23 — 14 3 — 5 1 1978 43 23 2 13 1 1 4 2 1979 **45 24 1 13 3 — 5 2 * Includes natural parent, step-parent, foster parent, adoptive parent and cohabitant of any of these.
† The year in which the offence was first recorded by the police as homicide.
‡ All these were sentences of between 1 and 2 year's imprisonment inclusive, suspended for 1 or 2 years.
** In addition there are 3 cases the results of which are not yet known.